


All the right moves (in all the right places)

by craploadsofawesome



Series: The Legacies High School AU [1]
Category: Legacies (TV 2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - No Powers, F/F, Fluff, Humor, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-21
Updated: 2019-04-12
Packaged: 2019-11-01 22:07:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 10,273
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17875715
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/craploadsofawesome/pseuds/craploadsofawesome
Summary: Josie did not know what to expect when MG put a notice up on the board advertising her lack of a date for prom.She didn't expect her evil ex to come barreling out of nowhere and ask her to prom. Nor did she think that she'd be stuck in the most idiotic situation ever, where she would have to dance and spend about five hours in a crowded gym room with the person who shattered her heart into tiny little pieces, the person who she spent the last six months trying to forget.She certainly didn't expect to find herself falling hopelessly back in love with Penelope Park.So yeah. M.G is going to be one dead person once she gets her hands on him.





	1. The beginning (Josie)

Josie did not know what to expect when MG put a notice up on the board advertising her lack of a date for prom.

See, that’s the problem with having a twin sister who has kind of sort of similar interests and tastes to yours; you can’t go with anyone she might remotely fancy or have any kind of history with. The first boy who had asked her out used to be Lizzie’s ex-almost-flame, the second had turned her down for something or the other three years ago, and the third was Rafael which, obviously, Josie wasn’t stupid enough to entertain any thoughts of that happening, not while her twin was still wandering around with a scowl on her face.

“Okay, this way you’re going to end up sitting alone in the corners and drinking almost three-quarters of the spiked punch by yourself,” Hope told her flatly.

“How do you know the punch is going to be spiked?” she asked her.

Hope stared at her, then at M.G who was sitting on top of their table, then back at her again.

“Oh.”

“Yes,” she continued “You’ve got to pick someone out before all the good ones are gone.”

“Ugh,” Josie groaned “Why can’t you just go with me?”

“You know I would have. It’s just that Landon asked me already and I don’t have the heart to turn him down now.”

M.G whistled “Ah well, there’s always some Axe-wearing, bro-saying frat douchebro you can pick.”

She made a face, and both of her friends laughed.

“Wait,” M.G said, his chuckles fading into a look of intense concentration (Josie personally thought it looked constipated) “Why not do exactly that?”

“Do what?” she asked him.

“Pick a random. I mean, just off the top of my head, what if you post a notice on the board about you not having a date and the first person to find out and ask you out after that gets to be your prom date?”

“What? We’re not doing……”

“Wait,” Hope jumped in “It’s actually not a bad idea, to be honest.”

“Okay, even considering for a second that you execute this brilliant plan of yours,” Josie questioned “What if the person who answers is actually some Axe-wearing, bro-saying, frat dudebro? Either way, wouldn’t I have to go with some random?”

M.G looked stumped for a moment before Hope replied “I mean, that’s a risk we all take at some points in our lives, don’t we?”

“You’re agreeing with him? Really? A poster? The hell, Hope.”

“It makes complete sense, Jo,” M.G told her, seriously.

Josie could see her entire life falling apart in front of her.

“We are not doing this,” she said, gathering her bag, and getting up to leave “You hear me? Absolutely not.”

**********

So of course they did it.

Josie self-consciously adjusted her coat and bag, hoping nobody else would see the huge neon green paper with the words “Josie Saltzman needs a prom date. Are you ready to be the one?” printed out in bold. As if. There were other things stuck there, but none as flashy or as stupidly huge as the one with her name on it. She could feel the looks of those standing beside her, could hear some girls giggling softly.

“Isn’t that……?” someone asked, tapping her on the shoulder.

“Yes, it’s me. No, it wasn’t my idea. Yes, I’m going to absolutely kill whoever it was that was responsible for this” she muttered, turning around and shoving past them on the way to wherever M.G was. Because boy, was someone in for about three million boatloads of trouble.

**********

“Ow, ow, Jo, stop it, damn, it hurts.”

Josie stopped, book in midair, just to pin him with a glare and say “Good. I was rather hoping it would.”

“Can someone tell me what’s happening?” Lizzie’s voice cut in the din. She’d just wandered onto the scene (Josie assumed it had been to get to her locker), and was looking more and more confused with every passing second “Why are you beating the boy? What did he do?”

“It wasn’t just him,” Josie muttered under her breath “Hope better have a grave ready for me to bury her in, because I am not spending valuable time digging it for her.”

M.G cast a baleful look towards Josie, and then started explaining. Lizzie, for the most part, listened quietly, her arms crossed and her eyes moving from Josie to M.G to the ceiling when it was time for the occasional eyeroll.

“And that’s why she’s been beating me for the past ten minutes, all because I had an absolutely brilliant idea to procure her a prom date,” M.G finished proudly.

“Uh, huh,” Lizzie replied “And did it not occur to you for one moment what would happen if…..”

Before she could finish, the entire corridor stopped breathing at the sound of a tremendous crash that came ringing in from the corner. Josie could hear loud running, people shouting and screaming and cheering, and then three people came running into view. Tripping and jumping, the girl and two guys made their way almost to her, when the girl somehow managed to beat both of them and managed to reach them, grabbing Josie’s hands, and falling down to her knees in front of her.

“Haha, suck it, losers,” she gloated, smirking back at the two boys, who gave her looks of intense disappointment, and then slowly turned away and started walking back “Amateurs.”

And then Josie was suddenly staring at Penelope Park, Satan Incarnate, Evil Personified, her terrible ex, who looked her right in the eyes and asked “Josie Saltzman, as the winner of the competition posed by the neon poster on the school board, will you do me the honor of going to prom with me?”

The utter silence was then broken by Lizzie, who stamped her foot. Hard.

“M.G, I’m going to kill you,” she declared, and if Josie had been capable of coherent thought at the moment, she would have completely agreed.

 


	2. The middle: Part 1 (Penelope)

Day 1:

Penelope Park has no chill.

Oh, she used to. There was once a time when she was the queen of all that was chill in the world. Complete universes used to crash down with a wave of her hand. Millions of people absolutely obliterated by the force of her indifference. She used to walk the corridors and the students would just fall down at her feet, begging for one glance from her. Ah, the days of having chill.

And look at her now.

“What are you doing here?” Josie asked her, looking completely unprepared at 8 in the morning.

(Oh, she better be prepared. Penelope Park does not lose her chill often but once she does, she makes sure she steals a few hearts in the process)

(And Josie’s definitely going to lose hers)

“Um, escorting my prom date to class, obviously?” she replied, as though it should’ve been completely obvious “My date, who I got because I was the fastest and the brightest and the tallest, and I won the competition.”

“Okay, first of all, you’re like two breakfast subs balanced precariously on top of each other……”

“Five feet two inches,” she butted in, through gritted teeth.

“Also, yes, I know you won the thing or whatever, you don’t have to keep repeating it all the time,” Josie finished.

And Penelope’s smile was back “But what if you forget, my dear date? We wouldn’t want that to happen, would we?”

“Wouldn’t want what to happen? What’s going on?” M.G walked up to them, coffee in hand.

“She’s talking about me forgetting that she’s my prom date,” Josie quickly told him, before Penelope could even open her mouth “You know, because of that stupid thing you did, Milton.”

The boy winced.

“Either way,” Josie continued, turning around to open her locker “There’s absolutely no way you’re escorting me or whatever….”

And then Penelope cut in front of her, blocking her view to her locker, and started pulling books out, one by one. Once she was done, she turned to Josie and Milton again, who were staring at her with completely gobsmacked expressions.

“Taking random books out won’t really help her, you know?” Milton told her, hesitantly.

Penelope rolled her eyes at him “Please. Chemistry, English Lit, and Art before lunch. And then she has Physics, Gym, and Electronical Devices at the very end. Oh, and a free period in the middle.”

She turned to Josie with the intention of smirking, but then was struck dumb by the expression on her face. It was the Josie she liked to remember when she wasn’t able to fall asleep, the Josie who used to smile at her like she had been the reason the Earth was thrown into existence aeons ago. Josie had the softest expression on her face, vulnerable, tender, and Penelope felt her chest suddenly go tight.

“You remember my class schedule?” she asked, finally, the wonder evident in her sweet voice.

Penelope smiled back at her, and shrugged.

“Come on, JoJo. Don’t wanna be late to class.”

As she was walking, Josie and Milton following her, she hears him mutter to Josie “You look like you’re already in love with her”.

And when Josie replies “Your face looks like it’s already in love with her”, sounding completely flustered, she just smiles, and keeps walking.

**********

Day 2:

Okay, so this isn’t going to be as easy as she’d thought when she’d planned it. You plan a grand gesture, you don’t really think about the ramifications of it. You also don’t think about how awkward you would feel, about the utter embarrassment that would befall you as you stand, just out of sight, waiting for the right moment so you can step into the spotlight. The metaphorical spotlight. The very bright, in focus spotlight.

Now of course, all of this hadn’t just happened. She’d had to jump through a lot of hoops to get here, had had to talk and cajole people to set things into motion. The biggest one of them had been the boy

_He looked wary when she approached him._

_“You really gotta get away from me,” he said, his eyes wandering around, presumably in search of Josie, or Hope or Lizzie, the three girls who were most likely to stab him to death in case they saw her with him._

_“Can you chill  for like, a minute, dude?” she asked him, wanting to laugh at how terrified he looked “I just need a tiny favor.”_

_“Stop doing things to take a shot at Josie! When anyone other than Lizzie takes a shot at Josie, they tend to wake up with scabies. You ever had them? They don’t feel nice.”_

_She did laugh then, unable to help it. She liked this boy. He was funny._

_“Look, Milton.”_

_“M.G.”_

_“Yes, okay, M.G,” she conceded “I know you have no reason to help me out, but.”_

_M.G raised his eyebrows._

_“Okay fine, I have no reason. I just……have you ever done something stupid and wanted to take it back, and realized that you can’t?”_

_“I take it this is about you breaking up with Josie out of the fucking blue and breaking her heart?”_

_She looked him right in the eye “Yes.”_

_“So this is what? Another attempt to ruin her? She’s already in a terrible place. You can’t walk around messing with her head. I won’t let you do that to her again,” he said, suddenly not the easy-going, scrappy guy she had thought of him as. It makes her feel good, that there are people who are ready to step in and protect Josie from everything in the world that could hurt her. Even if one of those things is her._

_“This is me making things right,” she replies, steadily “This is me, wanting to make sure she never has to cry again, that she is happy all the time. This is me, telling you that I was madly in love with her, when I asked her out, when I was dating her, when I broke up with her. That I still am madly in love with her, and will do absolutely anything to have a chance with her again.”_

_She took a deep breath, and then continued “I’m not saying I’m perfect. Hell, I know I’m not. But Josie, she, she is. And if it turns out that there is someone else who can make her happier, I will step aside and let her live her life. But until then, I won’t stop trying. Because you know as well as I do that she loves me too.”_

_He considered that for about thirty seconds “I’m only doing this for Josie.”_

_She smiled “Okay.”_

_“And if you hurt her again.”_

_“I promise I won’t,” she said, and had never meant anything more seriously in her life._

Right. Enough musing. Time to get to work.

She took a deep breath, then walked out into the cafeteria, boombox in hand. Made her way to the central table, a few tables away from Josie, who was facing the other way, and slowly climbed up on top. Then she opened her mouth.

“Attention, students of Salvatore High,” she started, her voice carrying through the crowd. She saw Josie stiffen, then slowly turn and look at her “My name, as most of you already know is Penelope Park, and I kind of have an announcement to make. So, a few days ago, I had won the honor of taking the very beautiful Josie Saltzman to prom as her date. Josie Saltzman, people, by the way, is on the table right over there. Can’t miss her. Either way, I have planned to honor the very old tradition of doing terrible, cheesy things in the name of prom and love, and am now going to sing a terrible song in a terrible voice. Please excuse me while I try to woo a lady.”

Half of the students standing there cheered loudly. Sometimes it paid to be popular.

The music started.

“Fake young when we first met, everything seemed alright,” she sang “Like children sing on the sidewalk, cut straight through the moonlight.”

She could see Josie hide her face in her hands, and slowly started walking up to her, still singing. Finally she reached her, and bent down on her knees, trying to look her ex-girlfriend in the eye.

“Why are you doing this?” Josie whispered at her, and she just shrugged.

“So sang that I really need you so bad, oh yeah, no not so typical love song,” she continued singing, and saw Josie’s mouth trying desperately not to turn up into a smile. It was her favorite song, after all “Coz it hurt us again and again.”

She finally finished, to a round of applause, and turned around to face her audience “Thank you, guys. You’ve been a lovely audience, Couldn’t have asked for better people, honestly. Cheers.”

As soon as they were gone, she got onto her knees again, beside Josie’s chair “So, what do you think?”

“I think you’re an idiot,” Josie whispered, her cheeks furiously red. Penelope thought it was adorable.

“No, you think I’m cute. You think I’m pretty. You want to kiss me,” she told Josie, her voice lilting.

“No, seriously, what are you doing?”

“I,” she starts, then falters, because there is no reasonable way to say that she has come back to her senses, realized that she was an idiot to ever have let Josie go without fighting for her, and wanting to hold her and kiss her all the time. Besides, it’s a little too early for that “I was, simply, singing you a not so typical love song.”

And if Josie's smile widens just a fraction of a bit before she controls it, Penelope is willing to let it be their little secret.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Song credits: Alfie's song by Bleachers


	3. The Middle: Part 2 (Josie)

Day 3:

Josie didn’t know why it was such a terrible day, but it was. Everything felt heavy today. Her legs, her head, her shoulders, and every part of her ached with a pain she could not help. She hasn’t seen her mother in about a month, her father spends three-quarters of his time at the school, Dean- _ing_ and the other quarter, trying and failing to make normal, not-awkward conversation with his daughters. And Lizzie, is, well, Lizzie. Hasn’t been doing anything specific to make Josie’s life terrible, and yet her presence feels suffocating in a way that weighs on Josie’s conscience most of the time.

All in all, a clusterfuck.

And that was why she made her way to this tiny room on the topmost floor of the school building, and was sitting, alone, staring at the door. Being the daughter to the Dean may not have a lot of benefits, but it did mean that she had keys and access to most of the rooms in the building, places where she could just sit and chill in peace. With no one around to bug her.

With no one around to bug her.

With no one around to bug her.

“Yes, I heard you, Josie,” Penelope says, head still poking through the just opened door “Be hard not to, what with you saying it thrice.”

“Three is a very significant number, isn’t it?” she replies “You wanna summon Bloody Mary, say her name thrice. You think Satan goes away if you repeat “Fuck Off” three times?”

She feels bad almost as soon as she says it. These days, she has been feeling more out of control than ever, especially around her ex-girlfriend. Her heart has started tap dancing again every time she sees her around; she’s started to look for Penelope in every room she walks into, like reflex. It’s been bugging her, because it reminds her of the initial days of their courtship, when life was all shy smiles and red cheeks. She thought it had been getting better, the trying to get over her ex part, and now it’s all screwed up again. It’s like a fucked up game, where she takes one step forward, and then Penelope walks into her vision, and her heart pulls her about five steps nearer to her.

The worst part of it all, the part that she’s afraid to admit to herself, is that she isn’t even sure what winning looks like anymore.

She’s brought back to the real world by Penelope, who laughs.

“Your comebacks are getting better, JoJo,” she points out, walking in like she owns the room, and sitting next to Josie “Been practicing, have you?”

Josie opens her mouth to reply, then closes it back again, suddenly feeling, exhausted “Penelope, I….am really not in the mood.”

Penelope nods, her eyes turning serious “I know. That’s why I’m not here to bug you.”

“Then why are you here?”

She considers that question for a while, tilting her head slightly so her dark hair falls into her eyes, and Josie tamps down the urge to brush it off her face “That’s a……long story? I noticed that you weren’t eating at lunch today, and considering you have your breakfast really early in the morning, you always have a heavy lunch because you’re so hungry by lunchtime. Your not eating lunch properly meant you were either sick, or had had coffee in the break, which you only have when you haven’t slept well at night. And I know what you sleep like, Josie, it takes something really terrible to ruin your mood enough to ruin your sleep cycle. Ergo, you were in a bad mood.”

“I’m worried you’re stalking me,” Josie replies, after a full minute of staring at her with what she assumes is a very gobsmacked expression on her own face, because she has no idea why someone would care enough to notice these stupid insignificant things about her.

“I don’t need to, JoJo,” Penelope answers, eyes soft, like she knows what she actually meant to say “You’re just, really, really obvious.”

“I am?”

“Yeah,” the girl shifts beside her, pulls a packet of M&Ms out of her jacket and hands it to her “Like the fact that these are the only things that bring you any peace if you’re upset.”

Josie opens the packet on autopilot, and pops one into her mouth.

“Well, this and,” Penelope fidgets again, and continues looking away “A hug from yours truly.”

And God, Josie wants to. She wants to fall into her ex’s arms like the last six months never happened, she wants to bury her head in Penelope’s hair and surround herself with the sweet fruity scent of her shampoo, wants to feel her pulse beating in her throat against her lips. She wants to feel her arms around her, just the right amount of tight enough to make her feel like home. She wants to never leave again.

It is that last thought that has her shaking her head, eyes fighting against the sudden, sharp prick of tears “I can’t, Pen. I can’t.”

Penelope nods, sharply and moves her hand over her hair, smoothing it down (Josie knows it is to hide her own tears, and feels an ache in her chest, again) “Okay. Okay. No worries.”

“Um, although,” she continues “Would it be okay if I held your hand? Only if you’re okay with it, I don’t want you to feel pressured or anything.”

Josie closes her eyes, tired of having to fight her own heart all the time, and holds out her hand. Penelope gently takes it in hers, and threads her fingers through hers, pressing tightly once, twice, and then letting their entwined hands stay between them. Josie doesn’t know how much time passes, but she starts feeling lighter and lighter, as the room starts darkening. Penelope sits beside her the entire time, a solid force.

She isn’t ready for a hug just yet, but the hand holding hers feels like one, just the same, and for the first time in a long time, Josie is content.


	4. The middle: Part 3 (Penelope)

Day 4

Nobody would ever dare to call Penelope a slouch.

She has been trained in absolutely everything, ever since she was five. Her mother had insisted on her knowing how to play most musical instruments, had sent her to dancing classes, so by the time she Penelope had walked into high school, she was basically an expert in all things art.

“Is there a point to this or?” M.G tapers off as she gives him a look.

“Of course there is, Milton,” she retorts “This shit is relevant, I swear.”

(And a little bit showing off, but he doesn’t need to know that)

“The point,” she continues “Is that I am what the Glee club would basically call a wet dream. Which brings me to why I’m telling you my plan. I will need a little bit of your help.”

He raises his eyebrows.

“Today at Glee club practice, I need you to partner up with anyone who is not Josie.”

“But I am her designated co-dancer for all things music!” he protests, looking entirely too put out with the entire proposition “We have a system. I hate the entire thing; she talks me into it. We get each other.”

She takes a deep breath “I was wondering if it wouldn’t be better for you to partner up with Lizzie instead. You know, _the girl you bloody like.”_

His mouth falls into a complete O as he considers that “I had not thought of that.”

“Clearly. So are we in agreement?”

He squints at her suspiciously, but finally, nods.

“You know,” he tells her “If I wasn’t Josie’s best friend, I would tell you that you are getting up to entirely too much trouble to woo one girl.”

“For Josie? I could spin the world and it still wouldn’t be enough.”

**********

Lizzie rolls her eyes as she slides into the seat next to them.

“You’re not in the Glee club,” she frowns “How did they let you in?”

“Hey,” she raises her finger, trying to look as offended as possible “Glee Club is an open, safe space for all. No boundaries, no restrictions. Shame on you, Lizzie Saltzman, for tainting this holy place.”

Now Hope and Josie both roll their eyes at her.

(She doesn’t really mind it. Josie Saltzman looks most attractive when she refuses to put up with people’s shit.)

“Also,” she continues, waving to the band-members who are looking at her, completely star-struck “The people here love me.”

(It’s true. Earlier in the day, when she had approached the members and asked if she could sit in, just to “have a look around”, they’d all fallen over each other in their haste to assent.)

One of the guys, the lead singer, Penelope presumes, stands up and walks to the center of the room, clapping for their attention. He talks a little bit about random things that Penelope tunes out because she is too busy staring at Josie and her cute look of absolute concentration, and then finally says the words Penelope has been waiting for him to say all day.

“Which is why, today, we’re going to be practicing a formal dance for our upcoming prom.”

The twins, Hope and Landon all turn and look at her.

“What?” she asks, with a faux innocent look that probably isn’t fooling anybody.

They all get up with a groan, and Josie looks at M.G expectantly. And then frowns because he shows no sign of wanting to come over to her.

“Um, M.G?”

“Uh,” he says, rubbing the back of his neck “I was thinking since Lizzie doesn’t have a partner today, I could, you know, dance with her.”

Lizzie looks absolutely stumped but takes it in stride. Josie looks half-betrayed, half-confused, then she watches Penelope make her way to her, and then realization hits her.

“You planned this!” she accuses.

“Of course I did, Josie, I thought you had that figured out a lot of time ago.”

String music starts blaring from the speakers, as they bow to each other.

“Isn’t your mere presence here a huge win for the patriarchy? You know, what with your conflicted view on proms as archaic traditions?”

“You know,” she says, eyes looking deep into Josie’s as they turn in a circle “You’ve sort of changed my mind on proms in general. So it’s fine. As long as I get to escort you, they have their own plus points.”

“Also,” she continues when the girl just rolls her eyes and looks annoyed “I wanted to check up on you. See if you’re okay.”

“About that,” Josie mutters, cheeks turning red “It didn’t mean anything. That day. I mean, you know what, us…..”

“Yes, I understand,” she replies, smiling in spite of the disappointment blooming across her chest. She had expected this back-and-forth, was even used to it. And Josie had every right to be angry with her. Had every right to not trust her.

It just didn’t mean that Penelope would stop trying.

Josie looks surprised (and dare she say, a little disappointed herself), by her easy agreement. The red hasn’t gone from her cheeks yet, and Penelope smirks at the obvious display of her effect on her ex-girlfriend.

“You seem flustered, JoJo,” she says around a grin “Is it because me dancing is hot?”

“Shut up,” Josie shoots back at her, blushing even harder. She swivels her head to look at the others who are dancing. Hope and Landon are in a world of their own, stepping side to side in no semblance of rhythm, although they look happy enough staring in to each other’s eyes. M.G mostly looks like he is dreaming, staring at Lizzie like he’s scared she’ll disappear if he closes his eyes for one millisecond. Then Josie turns back to her, and that’s where their legs tangle up, and Josie spins for a second about to fall.

Penelope acts on instinct, grabbing both her hands so that she lands in her arms somehow, in a perfect dip, then looks up to see that everyone is staring at them.

The Glee club, and Hope go “Aw.”

“I didn’t know it was going to be this easy to get you to fall for me,” she whispers to Josie.

“You wish,” she replies, but it sounds weak to Penelope’s ears and her smile broadens “Are you gonna let me go now?”

Penelope lets her arms go slack for a minute, and Josie mini-shrieks, her arms tightening around her neck. She laughs, and looks down at the girl who has her entire heart, all of it.

“You really think I’m going to let go again?”

Josie’s arms squeeze around her shoulders for a moment, and Penelope doesn’t know how she’s can be relied upon to grab onto Josie when she’s the one who’s falling so hard.

**********

Day 5

“What did I ever do to make you hate me so much?”

She doesn’t mean to. It’s what she’s going to tell herself later, to make herself feel better, feel less responsible. She’s going to think this later, when the entire thing is over, all the damage has been done, that she walked in with the purest of intentions. Except she might be able to lie to literally everyone, but she cannot lie to herself, and she knows this was a long time coming.

But when she finds Lizzie in the gym venting out her anger on the punching bag, everything comes bursting out. Every terrible, resentful thought she has ever harbored towards Lizzie comes out in the open, about how selfish she is, how self-centered she is, and how badly she’s always treated Josie. About how she never even considered that Josie might want to run for prom queen before she went and assumed she herself would win it. And in the end, she stands, chest heaving in righteous anger, knowing that she means every word.

Lizzie stares at her, then lets out a bloodcurdling scream and starts hitting the punching bag. Penelope can see angry tears making their way down her face, and while a tiny, bitter part of her enjoys the fact that Lizzie finally knows what the world looks like from the perspective of someone who doesn’t spend their entire life orbiting around her, most of her just feels sad.

“Lizzie,” she starts, softly, and the girl stops, all the fight drained out of her body.

“I love Josie,” she repeats, and Penelope doesn’t doubt that.

“I know you do.”

“I just….”

“I know.”

Lizzie sits down on the mat, takes off her gloves and Penelope approaches her gingerly. Sits down next to her, and stares at the bag swinging a few feet away.

“Is that why you broke up with her?” Lizzie asks, after five minutes of absolute silence “Because of me?”

“There you go thinking everything in the world is about you, again,” she snarks, but it has no bite to it “It certainly played a part, yes.”

Lizzie’s face twists, and she looks down.

“I just got tired of coming second, mostly,” Penelope continues “And of seeing Josie come second. Everything that girl does is for someone else. She loves and cares with a ferocity that surprises my selfish, obnoxious heart. For her, everyone else is on a higher priority. She doesn’t matter. And for me? She’s the only thing I care about. Seeing her do that to herself…..”

“You still love her,” Lizzie murmurs, sounding surprised.

“Why else do you think I was doing all this shit? For kicks?”

“But you broke her heart. You were the one who dumped her” Lizzie states, voice hard “You know, she used to cry every day for an entire month? I could hear her from the other side of the room.”

Penelope feels every word like a stab to her chest. She can see it clearly, Josie lying on top of the lavender comforter she loved so much, eyes red, crying softly because she didn’t want to wake anyone up, and it _hurts_.

“And when anyone hurts my sister? Boy, they’re in a world of trouble.”

“I don’t want to hurt her,” she says.

“What do you want from her, then?”

“Just. I just want her happy. That’s all I want. I took a step back because it was hurting me to see her hurt herself, but these past months…..I’ve realized I’ve fucked things up more than I’ve set right. I know that I can make her happy and I just want a chance. To prove that. I would give her the universe if she asks that of me. Sun, moon and stars. All of it. I’d do anything for her.”

Lizzie looks at her “I still don’t trust you.”

“Okay,” she says.

“And I still hate you.”

“Understandable. Have a nice day.”

Lizzie rolls her eyes at the meme reference.

“I just need a tiny favor,” Penelope asks, and starts explaining.

 


	5. The Middle: Part 4 (Josie)

Day 6

The most interesting thing that has ever happened in Salvatore School happens on a Tuesday, when somebody pulls the fire alarm and floods the entire school.

Now, as an isolated incident, it wouldn’t be remarkable, but counting all the surrounding events that happened before, it was pretty much a story for the history books. It would soon become the most talked about topic for another half year, would be passed on to the juniors, perpetrated by jocks, cheerleaders, nerds and Goths alike and would be twisted and turned so out of proportion that by the time two years would have passed, it would just be a gross misrepresentation of the original stories, carrying only its bare bones. In fact, the only thing they would remember is that an idiot happened to a perfectly normal girl’s life, and that the rest was history.

“You autocorrected legend to idiot,” Penelope says cheekily after the entire thing is over.

“This is a _verbal conversation_.”

**********

Josie Saltzman is an idiot.

She has to be, right? What kind of self-respecting smart person would dare to have maybe-feelings for the ex who dumped them and left them heartbroken? Why would someone want to go down that ridiculous path again, a path that carried absolutely no signs and had more speed bumps than a thirteen year old boy’s face? Live through the nightmare of having their chest stomped on and heart ripped into a billion little pieces?

Just to reiterate, Josie Saltzman is a fucking idiot.

But then again, to be honest, it’s not like she has any control over the situation. The past three weeks have been the strangest weeks of her life. She’s being wooed, thoroughly and completely. Penelope keeps doing these amazing, romantic things for her, keeps doing stupid things in an attempt to win her heart, and Josie can’t help it: she’s always been a sucker for Idiotically-in-love-Penelope.

And it’s not all grand gestures and humongous declarations of love either (although that’s been the majority of it). She hangs around school when Josie has football practice, patiently waiting for her on the bleachers and leaving her Gatorade bottles near her bag, and sits with her until Lizzie gets done with whatever it is that she’s doing. It might just be fifteen minutes every day, but Josie likes those fifteen minutes while Penelope prattles on about her day in an attempt to get her to talk, and she fiddles with her hands in an attempt to tamp down the urge to hold Penelope’s. She carries her books and drops her off to class every day, silently listening to whatever ridiculous piece of gossip Hope and M.G are trying to get Josie to listen to. She sends her links to songs every night, songs so completely romantic that they make Josie blush in the dark, and fall asleep with the dopiest of smiles on her face. It’s all very honeymoon phase-y, and it reminds her off the time back when they were dating. The only difference is while those memories were always accompanied by a sharp pain in her chest in the past, these days they carry a warm feeling that makes her stomach erupt in butterflies.

“Oh, you’re so completely in love,” Hope tells her, and Josie comes back to earth, wondering if she’s been saying this out loud.

“Your face, girl,” M.G tag-teams Hope, explaining, and she breathes a sigh of relief “You look 90% dopey and 10% gross.”

“Your face looks one hundred percent gross, M.G,” she retorts half-heartedly, opening her locker. Penelope isn’t here yet, and there’s a traitorous part of her that misses her, that has gotten used to seeing her bright smile right in the morning. She wonders where she is.

And doesn’t have to wonder long, because about thirty seconds later, she hears her voice, loud and clear from across the corridor.

_“Josie Saltzman, I like to think that the story of how you and I fell in love would be one for the ages. That thirty years down the line, there would be someone composing a sonnet over the way you crashed into me in this very corridor, our books flying everywhere, your coffee spilling over my hand, and I saw your initials trace a path down the length of my arm.”_

Oh dear God.

Her face is on fire right now, and even if she’s turned towards the locker right now, she can feel everyone’s eyes on her. Half of her is burning up in embarrassment while the other half is swooning inside at the very romantic poetry that Penelope is spilling right now.

“ _They will call me the Patron Saint of falling asleep in all the wrong places_ ,” Penelope continues, and Josie can hear her voice coming nearer and nearer “ _And Josie, you were the one who pulled a blanket over me and let me rest my weary head on your shoulder._ ”

“Oh my god, she’s so cute” some girl coos from a few lockers away, and Josie finally turns around, intent on seeing what bitch was falling over her girl.

Not _her girl_ her girl. Just. Oh, come on.

Penelope is standing with a rose in her hand, looking right at her and saying the words off her memory, presumably. She looks absolutely unconcerned about all the people standing in the corridor, staring at them. She seems to have eyes only for Josie.

And Josie only has eyes for this idiot.

_“And while I slept, I saw you in my dreams, and knew that it was time to wake up and meet you, my darling.”_

The place bursts into applause; M.G and Hope burst into simultaneous aws; Josie wishes she could burst into flames. Except not really. Because Penelope shyly steps towards her, hands her the rose, and takes her books, ready for another day at school.

If it wasn’t obvious before, it is now; Josie Saltzman is an idiot.

**********

_“You are the tiny lines originating the point where my palm marries my wrist, the way my fingers dance the waltz around each other whenever they’re anxious; you are the way all trains meet in the middle and run off to find their homes on the edge of the world.”_

“Oh my God, Penelope, Professor Wesley will be here any second!”

Penelope gives a cheeky smile, launches another rose at her desk and saunters out just as the man walks into class.

                                                                                                                                                    ***********

“It takes effort to admit that you flooded the entire school because you swooned too much, JoJo,” Penelope tells her as the sprinklers are raining water over the cafeteria.

There are kids running out, holding their bags over their heads to protect themselves from the onslaught, and Josie watches them absently, before Penelope’s words register in her head. Her ex is standing in front of her, completely drenched, hair sticking to her face, and she still looks like a runway model. Josie thinks she herself on the other hand looks like a drowned rat.

“I did not swoon,” she grumbles.

“Let me rephrase. I sang you a love poem in the cafeteria. You were standing by the fire alarm. As my words took effect, and bloomed like a flower in your chest, you lost control of your limbs and fell on top of the handle and accidentally pulled it. So, yes, you did not swoon.”

“Fuck you,” she says, after a minute’s pause, and immediately realizes it’s the wrong thing to say, because Penelope’s eyes turn dark.

“That’s what I’ve been trying to get you to do, babe,” she says, and Josie can’t help the way her stomach turns over.

She takes a step forward then, into Josie’s personal space, and starts speaking again.

“ _You, my darling, are love, love, love; you are the purest afterthought of my internal monologue; the familiarity in my peripheral vision; you are what makes me want to run, and need to stay, beloved, you are the sun, and….”_

Josie cuts her off with a kiss. She cannot help it, like she cannot help most of everything in her life related to Penelope Park. There’s a roaring in her chest, and her face is burning, and she just leans forward and kisses her. It’s quick, and she leans back almost immediately, her entire body protesting the action. It feels like every molecule in her is crying out for contact with Penelope, who looks as shocked as Josie has ever seen her. I want, Josie thinks hazily. She wants to lean forward and kiss Penelope forever, wants to kiss her in the middle of sprinkler water falling over them, wants to kiss her with drenched hair and dripping clothes, wants to wrap her arms around the girl standing in front of her and never let go.

This is dangerous, she thinks again. This girl will be the death of you.

And instead of doing everything that she wants to do, she takes a step backward, and runs away.   

 


	6. The Middle: Part 5 (Penelope)

The worst part of the entire thing is that Penelope realizes that if she had just closed down her laptop before leaving, the entire thing would not have happened.

It’s funny. Fate always is. You leave your laptop open in the computer laboratory once, You don’t think much about it. You think you’ll be back in fifteen minutes. You get waylaid somewhere. You come back to see your ex-girlfriend standing over it, a heartbroken expression on her face, and you know that this is it. Life will never be the same.

“What…..what is this?” Josie asks her, some tab open on her laptop which she assumes shows a list of every email every student in the school has ever sent.

“Josie,” she starts, and then goes quiet because, honestly, there is nothing she can say that justifies this “Josie, I’m sorry.”

“Sorry for what? For spying on every student here? For keeping tabs on me? For reading every goddamn private message I’ve ever sent to anyone? Is that what you’re sorry for, Penelope?”

“I didn’t mean to spy on you. It wasn’t like that. I just.”

“Just laughed at me while I told my friends how heartbroken I was after you dumped me? Did you have fun? Or let’s go before that, because you’ve been doing this shit a long time before, right? Did you read the one where I gushed all about how cute you were to Hope, told her I had a crush on you?” she says, eyes sparkling with what looks like tears, and Penelope’s heart cracks right down the middle “Oh my God, is that why you asked me out? Was that just another joke to you?”

“Baby, no,” it slips out of her as she reaches out for Josie, who shrinks back, and leans against the wall.

“Don’t,” she tells you, her voice shaking.

“Please, just listen to me,” Penelope’s crying now, but she doesn’t care, just wipes a hand roughly over her face “Please.”

“No,” she repeats “I can’t. I’m……I’m done.”

And then Josie walks away from Penelope the second time in a week.

**********

After school ends, Lizzie Saltzman walks into the empty broom closet Penelope’s hiding in, eyes blazing, hair almost crackling in righteous fury, and she just knows this is her last day on Earth.

“What. Did. You. Do?” she asks, punctuating each word with a sharp rap to the wall.

“I mean, we know what you did,” M.G tells her softly, from where he’s walked in with Hope “It’s just more of a….”

Lizzie glares at him.

“Why question,” Hope finishes, and meets Lizzie’s glare head on.

“What does it even matter?” she asks them, looking down at her hands again “What’s even the point? She’s gone. She’s gone, and she’ll never love me again.”

“Oh, shut up with your stupid self-pity, you stupid asshole,” Lizzie barks out at her, and Penelope looks up again, a little startled at her sharp voice “Josie can’t stop loving you, we’ve tried that already and that shit never worked out, not even the first fucking time. So how about you fucking tell us why you did what you did so I can decide whether it’s worth staying here or I should just kick your ass and be done with it.”

There is a long pause.

“I feel like that was a lot of swearing,” M.G points out, and both Hope and Lizzie roll their eyes at him.

She shrugs “It was a joke, you know? My friends and I were messing around with codes one day, and someone challenged me to write one that would allow us to read everyone’s emails, so that we could steal papers or some shit like that, just to mess with the system. Except the idea stuck and I actually wrote it. We never really went anywhere with it, just kept working on it to improve our coding skills, and to read the occasional fun correspondence between professors. And then one day, we found some dude who was blackmailing a freshman with indelicate photos that he had of her. So we vigilante’d him and he never bothered her again. Since then, we’ve just kinda done things like that, kept an eye on assholes who step out of line and make sure they’re not messing with people.”

She takes a deep breath, and continues “Look, I won’t deny that I’ve read her emails. But I did that after the breakup, just to check on her, to make sure she was okay. And yeah, that was a huge invasion of her privacy and she has every right to be pissed at me. So that’s that, I guess.”

There is silence after that. She can hear Milton fidgeting behind her, and Hope tapping on the door with her hand in some off-beat rhythm that doesn’t make any sense to her. Then Hope speaks.

“Okay, fine you fucked up,” she tells her “It was wrong, it was stupid and it was a mistake, but it’s not like you did it with the worst of intentions. It just, you know, spiraled. That happens. It doesn’t mean that you’re going to drown into a pit of despair or whatever it is that you’re doing right now.”

“I’m not drowning in a pit of despair….”

“Penelope, you smell like whiskey.”

“I hate to admit it, but Hope’s actually kind of right,” Lizzie says “You fucked up, you’re now going to fix it. So find a goddamn way.”

Penelope reaches into her bag and pulls out a letter “I, uh, wrote this earlier in the day. She won’t see me, so I’m asking you for a favor. Just give this to her. And please, make sure she reads it. Please. It’s my version of an explanation, and it sucks but I just, I don’t know, wanted to apologize.”

Lizzie nods, keeps the letter “And you’re coming next week right?”

Right. The prom. She doesn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

“There’s no point, if she won’t be there,” she tells her. To prom. To life. To everything.

“Don’t worry about that,” Lizzie replies “Just turn up. We’ll manage the rest.”

Penelope doesn’t understand. She doesn’t understand why her former arch-nemesis is suddenly on her side. She doesn’t understand why three people are standing in front of a fuck-up like her, willing to give her another chance. Doesn’t understand why the feeling in her chest feels a lot like hope, even though today should have destroyed every shred of it.

But she looks at all three of them, and nods anyway, because if they’re not willing to give up on her, she sure as hell can muster up enough energy to not give up on the love of her life.

 

 


	7. A Happily Ever After (Josie)

Josie stands at the window in her dress, wondering whether she should just throw herself out of it and give herself a fracture just to get out of prom.

“It’s not going to be that bad,” Lizzie tells her.

“It’s not the prom, it’s just,” she tapers off in the middle of her sentence.

“Penelope,” Lizzie completes for her, and she nods.

She looks over to the table where the note, crumpled because of all the reading and rereading she’s been doing at night. She’s never felt so conflicted in her life. She doesn’t doubt what Penelope provided as an explanation; opening a vigilante group punishing creeps seems like a very…..Penelope thing to do, to be honest. It’s just that she doesn’t know what to think about her reading her emails. There’s still a sense of being laid completely bare that she’s been feeling, and it took her a while to realize it was embarrassment.

She looks at her sister “I just, violation of privacy aside and shit, what if the only reason she did all of this because she thought I was sad? What if this is all just some elaborate ruse for her to alleviate her guilt? What if. Lizzie, what if she feels sorry for me? I don’t think I could take it.”

And Lizzie, Lizzie, takes one long look at her, and understands all the questions she’s trying not to ask, because saying them out loud would make it real, tangible. What if she doesn’t love me? What if she breaks my heart again?

What if I love her?

Yeah, and she doesn’t want the answer to that herself, because she already knows what it is.

“You’re in love with her, aren’t you?” she asks Josie, realization written all over her face.

Josie just looks at her, keeps looking at her, until their mother calls out from downstairs “They’re here!”, and then all of it really hits her.

“What, what, what, I can’t do this,” she says, arms flailing, pacing over the room “I can’t go to prom with her. Why, did you talk me into this? What the hell? Why didn’t I just say no? What? What? Why are you like this? What did I ever do to you? Why are you suddenly alright with her? What the fuck? What am I even doing?”

“Jo, Jo, Jo,” Lizzie stops her, hands on her shoulders, and looks right into her eyes “Calm down. Calm down. That’s it. Just, breathe. Count to ten. Yes, that’s great. Now count backwards from ten. Awesome. You’re okay. You’re amazing.”

Her heart rate slows down, gradually, and so does her breathing.

“It’s just prom. It’s just Penelope. Believe me, she’s just as nervous to see you as you are. You’re going to be fine. And if you’re not, tell me. Fuck the prom, we’ll go out and drive somewhere.”

She chuckles, and to her horror, finds that her voice sounds all choked up.

“You’re going to be prom queen, Lizzie.”

Her sister shrugs like she doesn’t care, and that is, well, a little strange. Being prom queen is all Lizzie has talked about since they entered high school.

“You ready?” Lizzie asks her, and she takes one deep breath.

“Yes.”

***********

She loses her breath as soon as she walks out.

She thinks of what it must have looked like to her parents. Her, standing at the top of the stairs, and looking down at Penelope, who’s wearing something black, and something gorgeous. Not that her dress matters; she’s a firm believer in the fact that her ex could wear a burlap sack and still pull it off, bit’s just. It’s her. She’s standing down there, at the bottom of the stairs, next to M.G, Hope and Landon, and her eyes are shining like a lake lit up with the reflections of a million light, like a colony of fireflies in the middle of the woods, like the moon on the nights when she feels sad, and she’s.

Oh.

She’s completely gone.

Just as she registers this fact, her mind pulls her back to the letter lying on top of her dresser, and she steels herself. Walks down carefully, arm in arm with her sister, and smiles at their parents. Her father looks ridiculously happy, and her mother’s already shedding tears. She finally reaches her friends, and Penelope reaches out an arm carefully, uncertainly.

“Only if you want to?” she asks Josie, eyes earnest.

Josie nods before she can think. Apparently, her heart is working faster than her brain right now.

Penelope’s arm slots into hers like it is meant to stay there forever, and Josie feels herself begin to smile for the first time in days.

**********

“Did you read the note?” Penelope asks her, once they’re done with the billion photos and are in the limo heading towards the prom. The rest of her friends are in another section, trying, Josie assumes, to give them some privacy.

“I did.”

Penelope nods, swallowing “Okay. Okay. Uh, so, um.”

“I understand,” she tells her “I understand that you weren’t trying to, you know, spy _spy_ on me. It’s just, disconcerting, to realize that you know a lot of things that I wasn’t really ready for you to know.”

“I know,” Penelope replies “And I am, so, so sorry for that, Josie. I swear I know I fucked up, bad. And I would do anything to make it up to you. I am sorry I hurt your feelings. And that thing stops. The entire stupid superhero gig. No more playing God. I promise.”

“Okay,” she says “I know.”

**********

It’s in the middle of the dance that everything goes wrong.

Everyone’s dancing; the ones standing off to the side are most definitely drunk, from what Josie can tell, courtesy M.G’s punch spiking. Hope and Landon are sitting at a table, looking more comfortable on chairs than they would dancing. Lizzie is dancing with every cute guy on the lacrosse team, in turns; M.G looks happy enough to be smiled at by her every once in a while. And she is arm in arm with Penelope, dancing to King Princess’ 1950. She is supposed to look grumpy, but instead her face muscles can’t stop smiling and blushing every time the girl looks at her.

And then Penelope starts speaking.

“I always wondered why you never ran for Prom Queen.”

She pauses in the middle of the dance, but the girl in her arms, expertly maneuvers her into a dip.

“Lizzie always wanted to be Prom Queen.”

“But so did you, JoJo,” she argues, mildly “I remember you telling me that once.”

 _She remembers_! her traitorous mind throws at her, and she pushes it down.

“It doesn’t matter,” Josie states, simply “Lizzie wanted to be prom queen. She will be prom queen. What I wanted…..”

“Matters,” Penelope completes for her “It matters, Josie. You should’ve run. But you were too consumed, thinking about Lizzie.”

She feels the beginning of irritation, and defensiveness “I don’t wanna talk about this.”

“Because you know I’m right. I just, I feel like you do not think about yourself at all, Josie. You’re entire life is Lizzie, Lizzie, and while…”

“You don’t get it, Penelope,” bursts out of her, frustrated “You won’t get it, because you personally cannot see anything past yourself. But there are people in the world who care about something other than themselves. Not everyone has to be selfish, and obnoxious like you.”

There is a ten second pause, and then her mouth wishes it could take the words back, because God, Penelope looks like she just got punched in the face. Her eyebrows are slanted together, which is a good indicator of the fact that she’s going to cry, and God, Josie has never felt more of an asshole.

“Let’s just finish the dance,” Penelope whispers, softly.

After it ends, she disappears.

**********

“You ready?” she asks Lizzie, as they’re standing beside the stage, ready for the Prom King and Queen to be declared. She’s worried. About Penelope. She cannot stop thinking about her face when she’d said those cruel words, and she hasn’t seen her since. Right now her father’s just droning on about some random stuff related to punch and alcohol and people vandalism.

Whatever. M.G will be fine.

Her sister looks a little rattled “What?”

“Prom Queen? You’re running? You’re probably going to win?”

“Oh that,” her expression turns to something Josie can only define as supremely unconcerned “I don’t care.”

“What do you mean you don’t care? Also, what’s up with you? You look, shifty”

Lizzie blushes, but rolls her eyes “I mean, I don’t care. Josie,” she asks her suddenly, turning to her in the dark “Have you ever wanted to be Prom Queen?”

She feels super stumped.

“Josie?”

“I don’t….I guess?”

“You guess?”

“Okay, fine, I did! But it doesn’t matter, because you wanted to run too. But why are we even talking about this? What does it matter anyways?”

Lizzie looks at her for a whole minute “Okay. Okay.”

“What okay? Why is everyone being like this right now? What?”

Lizzie smiles at her widely “Just be ready.”

“And the Prom Queen,” her father announces, sounding vaguely puzzled “In a surprising turn of events, is not the daughter I expected to crown. Josie Saltzman.”

She doesn’t register it at first. Her mind is a constant whirring of sound and images and colors and What.

“What?”

“Prom Queen, go up there,” Hope whispers teasingly, from where she and M.G and Landon have just appeared “They’re calling your name.”

“Is this a joke?” she asks them faintly.

“One hundred percent real,” M.G tells her.

“But……how?”

Lizzie shrugs, and Josie knows the answer, even if she doesn’t say anything.

“That girl would do anything for you,” Hope tells her.

“I would do anything for her,” Josie whispers back, before she’s pushed onto the stage.

**********

She finds Penelope sitting outside on a bench, arms stretched out, looking up at the moon.

“The crown suits you,” she tells Josie, softly, as she approaches her.

“Your face suits me,” she blurts out, without thinking, and then claps a hand over her face, mortified “Oh, God, I’m such an idiot.”

It works, though, because Penelope bursts into laughter, and scoots over to let Josie sit beside her.

“I’m sorry,” she starts, but Penelope shakes her head.

“I deserved all of the things you said to me. Probably more. I am selfish. And obnoxious. And stupid and over the top, and I know you think I do not care, but Josie, I care about you. You’re the only person I care about.”

“Oh, come on, you like my friends too,” she teases her.

“You know what, I actually think I do.”

“Either way,” Penelope continues “I broke your heart because I was stupid and foolish, and I could not stand to see you put me second to Lizzie. But more than that, I couldn’t stand to see you put yourself second to Lizzie. JoJo, I never stopped loving you. Not for one minute. You have to know that.”

“I know, I know,” she reassures her, grabbing her hand because Penelope looks absolutely stricken “I know you loved me.”

“I love you,” Penelope tells her, looking her right in the eyes “I love you, so, so much that these past few months have absolutely killed me. I just. I tried staying away, darling, I really did. But I couldn’t.”

Josie nods, and feels a tear slip out of her eye, feels Penelope raise her hand and wipe it away, gently.

“I think,” she says, slowly, her voice shaky, leaning her head against Penelope’s “That it would be super idiotic to stay apart when we’re so stupidly in love with each other.”

And Satan Incarnate, Evil Personified, her terrible ex, completely melts against her lips when she leans forward to kiss her. Josie can hear her heart thundering in her ears, and knows it’s just getting used to having Penelope around again. Her world restores itself with a gigantic crack, and everything suddenly seems, well, brighter.

“I love you,” she whispers “Penelope, I love you.”

“Stop making me blush,” her girl (Penelope’s her girl now!) grumbles “I have a rep, you know.”

“Uh, huh,” she hums, removing the crown from her head, and placing it on Penelope’s head.

“It’s your crown, Prom Queen.”

“Well, you’re the queen of my heart, Penelope Park,” she replies, and if it’s ridiculously cheesy, no one has to know except for the both of them.

Except.

Someone gags in the background.

“Queen of your heart?” M.G asks her, horrified, and they turn to see Hope, Lizzie and him standing a few feet away “Did you really just say that? Jeez, Josie, I thought I taught you better than that.”

“M.G, I’m going to kill you!”


End file.
